Bookslut

May 2006

"National Geographic said “We’ll send you anywhere in the world you want to go, if you write a travel memoir about it.” I said, “I’ll go to Los Angeles, and I’ll live in the Chateau Marmont.” I wanted to write a novel about L.A., but I knew I wasn’t going to be able to afford to get myself out here for very long. I thought it would really prompt me, by having to write a book about Los Angeles, to explore in a different kind of way, in a much more anthropological, journalistic way."
by
Michael Schaub

"I think that one way you create humor is to combine the sense of the darkness of the world combined with an interest in or curiosity about life. This is what I inherited from my father, who took a very dim view of certain aspects of our existence, but also took delight in the way the dachshund looked running across the floor."
by
Donna Seaman

For years, I tried to verbalize this sensation that would come over me when I was so attracted to a certain thing that I wanted to… well, I would say, install it in myself. When I saw Penguin’s new graphic classic edition of Paul Auster’s The New York Trilogy, I realized suddenly: I want to eat this book.
by
Melissa Fischer

"The two are essentially one: Martha represents this feminine energy and George represents this masculine energy, yet they both have masculine and feminine traits. When I was writing this, I was thinking about George, really, as a dual persona. He is seen as both feminine and masculine, George and Martha as a split of George, where Martha is his female aspect. But the two are essentially linked in a corrupt power dynamic; the idea of overpowering each other in the way of a Greek tragedy plays a role in that as well."
by
Sheba White

If you’ve read about Intuition in the media, don’t be fooled. Sure, there are parallels between its plot and high-profile scientific scandals, but at heart it’s not about fraud. Goodman is too good, and too subtle, a writer for that. It’s about blurred lines: What is scientific genius, rooted in creativity, and what is leaping far beyond the data into the universe of imagination? Which mini-deviations from protocol are troubling and which are not? How can we tell if someone has crossed the line from embracing intuition for scientific good or departed the world of science altogether?
by
Barbara J. King

"Unlike Comic-Con, the Alternative Press Expo action happens in the exhibition hall, not the panels. The big dogs are the small-press publishers, the big names recognizable only to a select few. Everyone has a book, everyone is there to promote. It's a cocktail party with mini-comics and business cards; low-stress, well-lubricated discussion of current favorites and how to succeed in an industry where winning big is breaking even."
by
Liz Miller

I was slated to teach the unrevealingly titled “Study of Love,” and no objective for the course seemed right. A guru of sorts had originated the course thirty years prior, and his objectives consisted of such utopian aims as “to give language to the unconscious and help unlock its secret meanings for our lives” and “to help students become, through hard intellectual work, more loving and happy human beings.” I myself had tried to become a happier and more loving human being, but I wouldn’t consider my personal results conclusive enough to warrant me qualified to teach such a skill. And as for giving language to the unconscious and unlocking its secret meanings, I was a poet, for god’s sake. I had beaten the unconscious-and-its-meaningful-secrets horse to death.
by
Monica McFawn Robinson